Lester hurls Sox to 6th straight win

CLEVELAND - The streaking Boston Red Sox got yet another outstanding pitching performance plus some timely hitting as they completed a three-game sweep of the Cleveland Indians with a 6-3 victory on Thursday night for their sixth win in a row.

Left-hander Jon Lester pitched seven strong innings, holding Cleveland to two runs and four hits, to improve his record to 3-0.

Boston's starting pitchers have now allowed three runs or fewer in all 15 games they have played. That's the longest such streak by an American League team since the Oakland A's starting pitchers held opposing teams to three runs of fewer in their first 16 games in 1981.

As was the case in all three games of the series, Boston got contributions from several players in the lineup. Jacoby Ellsbury and Mike Napoli both had two hits, Jarrod Saltalamacchia belted a home run and Daniel Nava chipped in with two RBIs.

The Red Sox broke open a 3-2 game with a three-run seventh inning that featured a single by Ellsbury, an RBI single by Napoli, a sacrifice fly by Nava and a pinch-RBI single by Mike Carp, who was 4 for 5 in the series with a single, two doubles and a triple.

Cleveland cut Boston's 6-2 lead to 6-3 with an RBI double by Carlos Santana in the eighth, but with runners at second and third and two outs, reliever Koji Uehara struck out Nick Swisher to end that threat. Andrew Bailey pitched the ninth to pick up his second save.

With an assist from the wind, Boston scored first.

In the second, Napoli lifted a routine fly to medium right field, but a gust of wind almost propelled the ball out of the ballpark. It bounced off the right-field wall for a triple, Napoli's seventh triple in eight years in the majors. Nava's single drove in Napoli to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead.

The Indians tied it in the bottom of the second when Mark Reynolds doubled, went to third on a flyout to right by Ryan Raburn and scored on a groundout to third by Mike Aviles.

The Red Sox took a 2-1 lead in the fourth when Saltalamacchia pounded a 3-and-2 pitch from Cleveland starter Zach McAllister over the wall in right for his third home run.

Dustin Pedroia's RBI single in the fifth extended the Boston lead to 3-1, but in the bottom of the fifth Aviles doubled and eventually scored on an infielder groundout by Drew Stubbs to make it 3-2.

No decision for Locke

Kennett of Conway's Jeff Locke allowed four runs and six hits in 4 2/3 inning, with four walks and three strikeouts, in the Pittsburgh Pirates' 6-4 home loss to the Atlanta Braves on Thursday night.

Locke was touched for homers by B.J. Upton, Chris Johnson and Justin Upton.

Braves rookie Evan Gattis clubbed a pinch-hit two-run homer in the eighth inning to provide the margin of victory. He drove a 2-0 pitch from Jared Hughes down the left field line to snap a 4-4 tie. It was Gattis' fifth homer of the season.